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Online safety charity Childnet call on young people to ‘Be the Change’ and enter the 8th Childnet Film Competition.

Leading online safety charity, Childnet, have launched the eighth Childnet Film Competition to encourage young people aged 7-18 to create a short film to educate their peers about staying safe online.

With the aim of showcasing how young people can inspire others to make the internet a better place, the competition gives young people the opportunity to harness their creativity and understanding of online safety issues. This year’s theme focuses on how young people can ‘Be the Change’ and make the internet a better and safer place for all.

As Becky Nancarrow, Education Projects Officer at Childnet, said:

"Over the past eight years, hundreds of young people have taken part in our Film Competition, demonstrating their incredible creative skills as well as educating and inspiring their peers about staying safe online. It’s clear to us that young people can be creators of change and help shape a better internet for all."

Be the change – taking partThe Film Competition is split into two age categories and schools or youth organisations must oversee and submit entries on behalf of all participants. Childnet have developed resource packs including storyboard templates, guides to filmmaking and other useful documents to help schools and youth organisations engage and support young people in making their films. The top three films in each category will be invited to a private screening at the BFI in London and the winners will be awarded film kits for their school or youth organisation.

Primary aged young people (7 – 11) are invited to create a 60 second film in response to the theme: ‘Be the Change – It starts with us’, looking at how young people can work together to make the internet a great and safe place.

Secondary aged young people (11 – 18) are invited to create a 2 minute film in response to the theme: ‘Be the Change – We’re online for good’, looking at what young people are doing to have a positive effect online.

For both age groups Childnet are looking for creative, imaginative films which reflect a positive and inspiring message. Young people might express their ideas through comedy, animation, or music. They will be encouraged to consider different filmmaking styles such as creating an advert, campaign or documentary.

As one of the Secondary school category finalists from 2016 said about their film:

"The message of the film is to think about how many people there are on the internet and how easy it is to make differences to the world. The way your actions, even very small actions, can affect millions of people quickly is both scary and useful at the same time, and you must remember that it is your choice to affect people positively or negatively."

In order to register a group of talented young people you know, then please send an email to film@childnet.com for an information pack. The closing date for entries is Monday 12th June 2017 at 5pm.

Join the conversation on social mediaTo inspire young people to help others stay safe online, entrants are being encouraged to share their film competition stories on social media using the hashtag #bethechange. Whether this is a message about the issues being explored, a picture from the creative process or even a tip from the young filmmakers, schools and youth organisations can share their updates with @Childnet.

The judgesThe winners will be decided by our expert panel which includes:

David Austin OBE, Chief Executive of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)

Joanna van der Meer, Film Tutor and Family Learning Programmer at BFI Southbank

Catherine McAllister, Head of Safeguarding and Child Protection BBC Children’s

We are delighted to have received hundreds of entries for our SID2017 competition, supporting the Safer Internet Day 2017 theme of Be the Change: Unite for a Better Internet.

In the last few hours leading up to Safer Interned Day 2017, we had a flurry of entries for the acronym competition - aimed at encouraging students to come up with their own e-safety slogan.

The competition generated some great responses - it certainly made judging a challenge. We are now delighted to announce the winners.

Best Primary School CHANGE acronymConnect Happily And Never Get E-angry! - Llanilltud Faerdref Primary school

"The pupils really enjoyed the activity and very quickly came up with lots of great ideas. It was a fun way of introducing many of the themes and ideas we looked at in more detail during 'Safer Internet Day.'"

Best Primary School UNITE acronymUnite: Never Interact To Embarrass - Reid Street Primary

“Here in St. Pius X College, we strive to ensure pupils and the wider college community are, e-savvy. The SID 17 competition this year was, brilliant, engaging, thought provoking and most importantly fun! We are very proud of our winning entrant. Her acronym is clever and makes a point about the futility of Cyberbullying. A large number of our pupils were, self-motivated into getting actively involved this for us, endorsed the competitions relevancy. Overall participants were provided with a wonderful opportunity to develop their, 21st century thinking skills, problem solving and creativity. Thank you”.

"Many of our pupils really enjoyed taking part in the competition and it made them think really carefully about the key aspects of being safe online. We had entrants from Year 7 up to the Upper Sixth so the competition was a great way to get pupils across the school reflecting on how to safeguard themselves online. Thank you for making this opportunity available to our pupils."

If your school is listed as a winner above, we will be contacting you shortly to arrange you Premium Plus membership.

Thank you to everyone for getting involved in the competition. There were some fantastic entries and we would like to congratulate all the pupils, teachers and indeed parents who got involved. Well Done!

With just a few days until the 2017 Safer Interned Day, entries for our SID2017 competition are flooding in.

Safer Internet Day 2017 will be celebrated globally on Tuesday 7th February with the slogan ‘Be the change: Unite for a better internet’.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration sees over 1,000 organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

Each year hundreds of organisations come together to promote the safe and responsible use of technology. Last year the campaign reached 40% of UK youth.

E-safety Support - SID2017 Competition

We have been delighted with the number of entries we have so far received for our competition. Here are just a few examples:

Still time to get involvedYou still have time to enter our SID2017 competition. To get involved, all your pupils have to do is come up with a positive e-safety acronym using the words CHANGE or UNITE - inspired by the SID2017 theme, Be the Change: Unite for a better Internet.

This competition is open until midnight on February 6th 2017. Find out more